Chapter 3

the prince of the underworld. The term is here explained as Apollyon (q.v.), the ``destroyer.', W. Baudissin (Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklo padie) notes that Hades and Abaddon in Rabbinic writings are employed as personal names, just as shemayya in Dan. iv. 23, shamayim (``heaven''), and makom (``place'') among the Rabbins, are used of God.

ABADEH, a small walled town of Persia, in the province of Fars, situated at an elevation of 6200 ft. in a fertile plain on the high road between Isfahan and Shiraz, 140 m. from the former and 170 m. from the latter place. Pop. 4000. It is the chief place of the Abadeh-Iklid district, which has 30 villages; it has telegraph and post offices, and is famed for its carved wood-work, small boxes, trays, sherbet spoons, &c., made of the wood of pear and box trees.

ABAE (rabai), a town in the N.E. corner of Phocis, in Greece, famous in early times for its oracle of Apollo, one of those consulted by Croesus (Herod. i. 46). It was rich in treasures (Herod. viii. 33), but was sacked by the Persians, and the temple remained in a ruined state. The oracle was, however, still consulted, e.g. by the Thebans before Leuctra (Paus. iv. 32. 5). The temple seems to have been burnt again during the Sacred War, and was in a very dilapidated state when seen by Pausanias (x. 35), though some restoration, as well as the building of a new temple, was undertaken by Hadrian. The sanctity of the shrine ensured certain privileges to the people of Abac (Bull. Corresp. Hell. vi. 171), and these were confirmed by the Romans. The polygonal wabs of the acropolis may still be seen in a fair state of preservation on a circular hill standing about 500 ft. above the little plain of Exarcho; one gateway remains, and there are also traces of town walls below. The temple site was on a low spur of the hill, below the town. An early terrace wall supports a precinct in which are a stoa and some remains of temples; these were excavated by the British School at Athens in 1894, but very little was found.

See also W. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, ii. p. 163i Journal of Hellenic Studies, xvi. pp. 291-312 (V. W. Yorke). . (E. GR.)

ABAKANSK, a fortified town of Siberia, in the Russian government of Yeniseisk, on the river Yenisei, 144 m. S.S.W. of Krasnoyarsk, in lat. 54 deg. 20' N., long. 91 deg. 40' E. This is considered the mildest and most salubrious place in Siberia, and is remarkable for certain tumuli (of the Li Kitai) and statues of men from seven to nine feet high, covered with hieroglyphics. Peter the Great had a fort built here in 1707. Pop. 2000.

ABALONE, the Spanish name used in California for various species of the shell-fish of the Haliotidae family, with a richly coloured shell yielding mother-of-pearl. This sort of Haliotis is also commonly called ``ear-shell,'' and in Guernsey ``ormer'' (Fr. ormier, for oreille de mer). The abalone shell is found especially at Santa Barbara and other places on the southern Californian coast, and when polished makes a beautiful ornament. The mollusc itself is often eaten, and dried for consumption in China and Japan.

ABANA (or AMANAH, classical Chrysorrhoas) and PHARPAR, the ``rivers of Damascus'' (2 Kings v. 12), now generally identified with the Barada (i.e. ``cold'') and the A`waj (i.e. ``crooked'') respectively, though if the reference to Damascus be limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament, Pharpar would be the modern Taura. Both streams run from west to east across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility, and lose themselves in marshes, or lakes, as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian desert. John M'Gregor, who gives an interesting description of them in his Rob Roy on the Jordan, affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering, the system and construction of the canals, by which the Abana and Pharpar were used for irrigation, might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. As the Barada escapes from the mountains through a narrow gorge, its waters spread out fan-like, in canals or ``rivers'', the name of one of which, Nahr Banias, retains a trace of Abana.

ABANCOURT, CHARLES XAVIER JOSEPH DE FRANQUE VILLE D', (1758-1792), French statesman, and nephew of Calonne. He was Louis XVI.'s last minister of war (July 1792), and organized the defence of the Tuileries for the 10th of August. Commanded by the Legislative Assembly to send away the Swiss guards, he refused, and was arrested for treason to the nation and sent to Orleans to be tried. At the end of August the Assembly ordered Abancourt and the other prisoners at Orleans to be transferred to Paris with an escort commanded by Claude Fournier, ``the American.'' At Versailles they learned of the massacres at Paris, and Abancourt and his fellow-prisoners were murdered in cold blood on the 8th of September 1792. Fournier was unjustly charged with complicity in the crime.

ABANDONMENT (Fr. abandonnement, from abandonner, to abandon, relinquish; abandonner was originally equivalent to mettrea bandon, to leave to the jurisdiction, i.e. of another, bandon being from Low Latin bandum, bannum, order, decree, ``ban''), in law, the relinquishment of an interest, claim, privilege or possession. Its signification varies according to the branch of the law in which it is employed, but the more important uses of the word are summarized below.

ABANDONMENT OF AN ACTION is the discontinuance of proceedings commenced in the High Court of Justice either because the plaintiff is convinced that he will not succeed in his action or for other reasons. Previous to the Judicature Act of 1875, considerable latitude was allowed as to the time when a suitor might abandon his action, and yet preserve his right to bring another action on the same suit (see NONSUIT); but since 1875 this right has been considerably curtailed, and a plaintiff who has deilvered his reply (see PLEADING), and afterwards wishes to abandon his action, can generally obtain leave so to do only on condition of bringing no further proceedings in the matter.

ABANDONMENT IN MARINE INSURANCE is the surrender of the ship or goods insured to the insurers, in the case of a constructive total loss of the thing insured. For the requisites and effects of abandonment in this sense See INSURANCE, MARINE.

ABANDONMENT OF WIFE AND CHILDREN is dealt with under DESERTION, and the abandonment or exposure of a young child under the age of two, which is an indictable misdemeanour, is dealt with under CHILDREN, CRUELTY TO.

ABANDONMENT OF DOMICILE is the ceasing to reside permanently in a former domicile coupled with the intention of choosing a new domicile. The presumptions which will guide the court in deciding whether a former domicile has been abandoned or not must be inferred from the facts of each individual case. See DOMICILE.

ABANDONMENT OF AN EASEMENT is the relinquishment of some accommodation or right in another's land, such as right of way, free access of light and air, &c. See EASEMENT.

ABANDONMENT OF RAILWAYS has a legal signification in England recognized by statute, by authority of which the Board of Trade may, under certain circumstances, grant a warrant to a railway authorizing the abandonment of its line or part of it.

ABANO, PIETRO D, (1250-1316), known also as PETRUS DE APONO or APONENSIS, Italian physician and philosopher, was born at the Italian town from which he takes his name in 1250, or, according to others, in 1246. After studying medicine and philosophy at Paris he settled at Padua, where he speedily gained a great reputation as a physician, and availed himself of it to gratify his avarice by refusing to visit patients except for an exorbitant fee. Perhaps this, as well as his meddling with astrology, caused him to be charged with practising magic, the particular accusations being that he brought back into his purse, by the aid of the devil, all the money he paid away, and that he possessed the philosopher's stone. He was twice brought to trial by the Inquisition; on the first occasion he was acquitted, and he died (1316) before the second trial was completed. He was found guilty, however, and his body was ordered to be exhumed and burned; but a friend had secretly removed it, and the Inquisition had, therefore, to content itself with the public proclamation of its sentence and the burning of Abano in effigy. In his writings he expounds and advocates the medical and philosophical systems of Averroes and other Arabian writers. His best known works are the Conciliator differentiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur (Mantua, 1472; V.enice, 1476), and De venenis eorumque remediis (1472), of which a French translation was published at Lyons in 1593.

ABANO BAGNI, a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Padua, on the E. slope of the Monti Euganei; it is 6 m. S.W. by rail from Padua. Pop. (1901) 4556. Its hot springs and mud baths are much resorted to, and were known to the Ronlans as Aponi fons or Aquae Patavinae. Some remains of the ancient baths have been discovered (S. Mandruzzato, Trattato dei Bagni d' Abano, Padua, 1789). An oracle of Geryon lay near, and the so-called sortes Praenestinae (C.I.L. i., Berlin, 1863; 1438-1454), small bronze cylinders inscribed, and used as oracles, were perhaps found here in the 16th century.

ABARIS, a Scythian or Hyperborean, priest and prophet of Apollo, who is said to have visited Greece about 770 B.C., or two or three centuries later. According to the legend, he travelled throughout the country, living without food and riding on a golden arrow, the gift of the god; he healed the sick, foretold the future, worked miracles, and delivered Sparta from a plague (Herod. iv. 36; Iamblichus, De Fit. Pythag. xix. 28). Suidas credits him with several works: Scythian oracles, the visit of Apollo to the Hyperboreans, expiatory formulas and a prose theogony.

ABATED, an ancient technical term applied in masonry and metal work to those portions which are sunk beneath the surface, as in inscriptions where the ground is sunk round the letters so as to leave the letters or ornament in relief.

ABATEMENT (derived through the French abattre, from the Late Latin battere, to beat), a beating down or diminishing or doing away with; a term used especially in various legal phrases.

ABATEMENT OF A NUISANCE is the remedy allowed by law to a person or public authority injured by a public nuisance of destroying or removing it, provided no breach of the peace is committed in doing so. In the case of private nuisances abatement is also allowed provided there be no breach of the peace, and no damage be occasioned beyond what the removal of the nuisance requires. (See NUISANCE.)

ABATEMENT OF FREEHOLD takes place where, after the death of the person last seised, a stranger enters upon lands before the entry of the heir or devisee, and keeps the latter out of possession. It differs from intrusion, which is a similar entry by a stranger on the death of a tenant for life, to the prejudice of the reversioner, or remainder man; and from disseisin, which is the forcible or fraudulent expulsion of a person seised of the freehold. (See FREEHOLD.)

ABATEMENT OE DEBTS AND LEGACIES. When the equitable assets (see ASSETS) of a deceased person are not sufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate proportionately, and they must accept a dividend. Also, in the case of legacies when the funds or assets out of which they are payable are not sufficient to pay them in full, the legacies abate in proportion, unless there is a priority given specially to any particular legacy (see LEGACY). Annuities are also subject to the same rule as general legacies.

ABATEMENT IN PLEADING, or plea in abatement, was the defeating or quashing of a particular action by some matter of fact, such as a defect in form or the personal incompetency of the parties suing, pleaded by the defendant. It did not involve the merits of the cause, but left the right of action subsisting. In criminal proceedings a plea in abatement was at one time a common practice in answer to an indictment, and was set up for the purpose of defeating the indictment as framed, by alleging misnomer or other misdescription of the defendant. Its effect for this purpose was nullified by the Criminal Law